Steve Rattner: We Need Death Panels

Sep 28, 2012

RUSH: Here’s Rick in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Great to have you on the program. You know, I’ve often wondered: How does something get named “Little Egg Harbor”? Do you know? I mean, you’re from there. Do you have any idea how that got its name?

CALLER: No, Rush, I just moved here in February. I have no idea.

RUSH: Well, there’s gotta be a reason. I’ll find it on Wikipedia.

CALLER: Yeah, I know. I don’t know if there’s a Big Egg Harbor, but I’m Little Egg Harbor. I was wondering. I was following Timmy’s call. By the way, congratulations, Timmy! I think you’re great, and I think there are lots of people out there that think along the lines you’re thinking.

RUSH: I certainly hope so.

CALLER: Okay. But I was wondering if you came across an article by Steven Rattner in the New York Times called “Beyond Obamacare” where the very first line of the article is “WE need death panels”?

RUSH: No. When was that?

CALLER: It was dated September 17th. I think it was Saturday’s New York Times. I’m not 100% sure.

RUSH: I don’t see anything in New York Times unless somebody sends it to me.

CALLER: Yeah, I don’t see it, either.

RUSH: I don’t read it. Is that really…? Steven Rattner was the car czar. He was the first car czar. He’s Little Pinch Sulzberger’s best friend.

CALLER: Uh-huh. Yup.

RUSH: I think together they weigh about 140 —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — and their wives together weigh about 80.

CALLER: (laughs)

RUSH: Well, ex-wives. Whatever. He actually started out by saying…?

CALLER: “WE need death panels.” First sentence. First of all, it’s New York Times, so I can’t read the whole article ’cause I wanna just put my fist through my computer.

RUSH: I gotta find that. No offense, but anybody can call here and say anything. And I woulda thought that somebody woulda told me about this.

CALLER: Bo said I was the first.

RUSH: You are the first, and it’s 11 days ago this happened.

CALLER: Yeah. I tried to get you yesterday, ’cause you were talking about somebody bringing up how stupid Sarah Palin is, and I’m sitting here saying, “I remember how crazy the left went when she brought up death panels or Betsy McCaughey would bring it up or you would bring it up or Glenn Beck brings it up.” We’re always crazy when we bring up these things, but here we are right here in the New York Times, Steven Rattner, one of Obama’s guys puts it right out there. “WE need death panels.” Then he goes on to say, well, maybe we should call it rationing.

RUSH: We’ve already got rationing in Obamacare. There’s already going to be death panels. (interruption) Snerdley just found it and has confirmed your reading of the story.

CALLER: Yeah, another quote that I think is kind of exciting is you’re talking about how Obama’s giving away cell phones and all that stuff. So I guess we’re entitled to cell phones but it says here “that elderly Americans are not entitled to every conceivable medical procedure or pharmaceutical.” So they’ll give you phones, they’ll give you food stamps, but they won’t give you life.

RUSH: Let me tell you what this is. Let me tell you what this is. Rattner just doesn’t one day decide to write this piece.

CALLER: No!

RUSH: Just like last November, Thomas Edsall didn’t just decide to write a piece that the Obama campaign was writing off white working-class voters. That piece was aimed right at New York Times readers, and the purpose of that piece is to get it out there that there are going to be death panels so that when it happens, they’re ready. Particularly the death panels are gonna be judging whether or not the elderly live. It’s exactly what we’ve all said!

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: It’s whether or not it makes sense to spend the money to keep ’em alive.

CALLER: Amen, and there it’s right there.

RUSH: Obama, you remember the ABC special where the woman asked Obama about her hundred-year-old mother, whether or not she could get a pacemaker and Obama said, “No, no, no. Maybe let’s give her a pill.” The death panels have always been in there. Palin put it out there, and the reason they jumped on her is because she was right. She revealed what was supposed to be a hidden truth.

CALLER: Yep. And that just goes back to what you’ve always said, Rush, that you can always tell when you hit a nerve by the way they react. When the truth comes out, if they react really nuts then you hit ’em.

RUSH: Yep.

CALLER: You got ’em.

RUSH: Stuck pigs. I mean, it really is true. Okay. Well, thanks for the heads up, Rick. So Steven Rattner, Obama’s car czar, big friend of Little Pinch Sulzberger. It’s a piece entitled “Beyond Obamacare,” is that what it is? “Beyond Obamacare,” by Steven Rattner. “WE need death panels.” That’s how it starts. Well, see, Rattner knows that there are already death panels in it. By death panel, I mean: “As the secretary shall determine…” That’s the secretary of Health and Human Services right now, Sebelius.

So she will appoint panels that will decide.

Once Obamacare is fully implemented, folks, once it’s fully implemented, there will be rationing. There can’t be any alternative to that once the government’s responsible for paying for everything. They don’t have an endless supply of money, either. The question will be, “Does it make more sense to spend a lot of money on surgery or treatment or pharmaceuticals for somebody statistically close to death, or does it make sense to save that money and spend it on a young person that might end up in an accident or what have you?”

That’s gonna be the calculation.

Your life will actually come down to a dollars-and-cents value assigned to you — as a number, by the way — by the government. It was always part of Obamacare. Sarah Palin was right. It was always there. We’ve all been right. They’re lying about everything to us. In fact, that debate next Wednesday night, you know we ought to do? Do a Lie-o-Meter. We ought to just sit there and just scratch it up. Every time Obama lies about something, make a note. And at the end of the debate, add ’em up, ’cause it’s gonna be one lie after another.